Milestones

November 19, 2006

Inez Naomi Paff Creager

Age: 100

Birth date: Aug. 5, 1906

Residence: West of Boca Raton

Family: Inez was married to her husband, John, for 53 years; he passed away in 1983. They had two children, Carolyn J. Creager of Boca Raton, and Charles Q. Creager of Canfield, Ohio. She has three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Hometown: Goshen, Ind.

Q. How did she celebrate her birthday?

A. Inez celebrated her birthday by going to dinner at Stir Crazy and Bistro Du Village in Boca Raton with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Q. What did she do for a living?

A. Inez worked for a year in a five and dime store to earn money to attend Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio. She graduated in 1929 with a major in Christian education. Inez sewed, painted, planted gardens and raised her children. She was also a Sunday school teacher, deaconess and church mother in Youngstown, Ohio. After her children were grown, she began work as a librarian in the historic library building in North Lima, Ohio. In her 80s, she still worked two days a week at St. Andrew's School library as a volunteer.

Q. What is her favorite memory?

A. Inez and John hiked and camped in 46 states, asking farmers for permission to set up a tent in their fields before campgrounds existed. In 1950, they bought 6 acres of woods in Canfield Township, where they built a Cape Cod-style house overlooking a pond and planted 1,500 pine trees. Other favorite memories are of raising her children and her grandchildren.

Q. How is she doing in 2006?

A. Inez has survived many health obstacles, such as the great flu epidemic, congestive heart failure and pneumonia at age 98. She bounces back from every illness. She is proof of the importance of exercise, work, a healthy diet and mental stimulation. Inez still walks with a rolling walker at good speed and good stride. Inez loved to read and do crossword puzzles but has macular degeneration and cannot see well any longer. Her daughter reads to her a couple of hours each day.

Source: Carolyn J. Creager

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